Her Prince
by EchoingAirport
Summary: Zuko is trying to teach Katara how to redirect lightning, but it's turned out to be harder than he'd originally thought. One-shot


Katara watched him carefully as he breathed slowly into his folded hands. He was frustrated, she knew, and the breathing exercise that she should have been participating in was more for his benefit than her own. But she couldn't join him. She was angry at him, but in this moment of silence her anger had subsided, and she hardly remembered why she had been frustrated with him at all. Now, she simply watched her prince's bare chest expand and deflate as it shone in the sun. Her prince...Whatever hair ornament he wore he would always be her prince. He was the passionate boy pursuing her across the world still. That would never change in her mind.

Finally his head snapped up, "Okay, let's try it again."

She nodded, taken off guard and moved herself into the stance, both of her arms stretched along her body. She had barely begun to move before he interrupted.

"Katara, you're too tense!" he roared, "Relax! You have to pull the energy across your chest, like this!" Right, _that _was why she'd been mad at him. Zuko's strong arms extended in front of him and he deliberately pulled one back along his body before shooting it out again. He took a calm breath and dropped his stance, before turning his stern golden eyes to her. "You _have _to relax," he commanded.

The waterbender dropped her stance feeling completely infuriated again. "Well maybe I'd be able to if my teacher wasn't always yelling at me!" She was tired, she was hungry, they had been in the hot sun all day. Katara wanted to be done with this. He was leaving soon, on Firelord business. Why couldn't they have had a nice day in bed or gone walking through the gardens? Instead he'd had her out in the courtyard for hours practicing her form for a move that she couldn't perform."I'm not a firebender, Zuko! This isn't going to come naturally to me!" She was practically screaming now and her chest was heaving.

Zuko huffed and wiped his forehead on his arm. It didn't help. His arms were sweaty too. "No, but if you'd been paying attention I said it was created after watching waterbenders, and it's not about the element, Katara. It's about redirecting energy. Anybody can do it." At least he hoped. His theory had never been tested, though many experts had agreed with him.

His voice was low now. Katara never liked that. She could face the raging, screaming Zuko, but there was no getting past him when he managed to reign in his anger and work with it. "Okay, okay. Then maybe you're just not a good waterbending teacher," she kept her tone pleasant in hopes that he would just let things go or laugh it off. But she was not about to admit that all of this was her fault. She was a master waterbender, so surely she had mastered the technique long ago. To say otherwise would be a blow to her pride. Zuko was moving toward her now and there was something heavy about his steps. Surely he hadn't already given up that easily. Perhaps she'd won the fight. This was what she had wanted, but now she almost felt disappointed at the thought that he would give in so quickly.

"Katara." He reached out his hand and she took it so that he could draw her closer to his steaming body. She wanted to still be angry at him. She didn't like this Zuko that simply let things go instead of fighting her tooth and nail. But his body was so firm...and she was so tired. She leaned into him despite herself. "I'm sorry." His voice quivered, and without seeing the tears Katara knew that he was weeping. She could feel the water threading down his cheeks. Her resolve softened.

"Zuko, no," she touched his face gently. She didn't even know why she was comforting him, but she didn't want to see him hurt. They fought constantly as a couple, but when the tears began to flow both she and him put aside their anger. Something in her chest ached when she watched him cry. This was how she had first known that she loved him. She couldn't bear to see him hurt anymore, when once she had relished the thought of hurting him herself. "I didn't mean what I said. You're a fine teacher." She hooked her thumb under his chin and pulled it up gently so that she could see those amber eyes. "There. What's the matter then?"

He shook his head. He was still so proud. "Nothing. You were right, I was being too hard on you. You were doing fine."

Was he trying to make her feel better? Or had Katara actually been doing the move correctly. Either way, Katara's brow dropped and her dark cheeks burned red. She could never stand the thought of being lied to. "Then why were you being such an ass?" she asked indignantly. Her tone was harsher than she'd intended, but her anger was flooding back to her. She shoved his bare torso away from her roughly. They had wasted almost the entire day for nothing, the day before he left. Katara knew that he would be gone for at least a month, maybe more, looking for his mother once again, and he had completely ruined it.

"Katara!" There were still tears in Zuko's eyes but his tone felt like steel.

He was talking again, "Katara, I needed you to know this. You _had _to know this before I left."

Her eyes shifted to scar on his smooth torso. "Oh."

He didn't have to explain any further, he knew that she'd understood, and he gathered her into his arms. "I wish-" he buried his face in her hair, "I wish I could always be there, but that's something I can't promise you, and it's selfish but I need _you _to always be there for me. I need you..."

He was crying again. Katara could feel the warmth of his tears on her thick hair, and she wrapped her arms around her prince.


End file.
